Toronto 2011: Shoreline Boards Gerard Depardieu-Harvey Keitel Comedy 'So I Say' (Exclusive)

2:10 PM PDT 9/10/2011 by Scott Roxborough

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Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Gerard Depardieu

Morris Ruskin’s production and sales outfit will co-produce the English-language feature based on the novella, “The Death of Ipu.”

TORONTO -- Morris Ruskin’s Shoreline Entertainment has come on board the English-language comedy/drama So I Say, aka IPU: Convicted to Live, starring Gerard Depardieu and Harvey Keitel.

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The WWII-set feature is based on the Romanian novella The Death of Ipu by Titus Popvici. A German solider is found dead in a small village near Transylvania. The Nazis threaten to kill ten villager leaders unless the guilty party gives himself up. The leaders ask the village madman to confess in exchange for receiving a hero’s burial. Depardieu will play the madman, Keitel will portray the village priest.

“This is a wonderful story told with comedic flair about how people can manipulate each other in a desperate situation,” Ruskin said. “Depardieu and Keitel are actors that can grip and enthrall an audience and pull off the comedy.”

Romanian helmer Bogdan Dumitrescu Dreyer will direct. Giuliano Doman and Daniel Zuta are producing with Ruskin as executive producer.

Shooting is set to begin in Romania in two weeks, with interiors and post to be done in Belgium. Shoreline is handling international sales and are shopping the picture to buyers in Toronto.